


The Cause of Insomnia

by Rinari7



Series: Koreth and Vera [5]
Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Charr (Guild Wars), F/M, Friends to Lovers, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Porn with Feelings, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2019-01-09 16:59:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12280701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinari7/pseuds/Rinari7
Summary: It —he— can't matter that much.





	The Cause of Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> Tyr and Biafra are not mine; they belong to their respective players.

Vera turned inside her blanket, her left shoulder digging painfully into the metal floor. The noise down here, near the Great Smelter, never stopped, and somewhere, water was dripping. It annoyed her to no end, and that's why she was still awake. At least that's what she would have liked to tell herself.  
She knew her thoughts were what refused to let her rest.

“By Gaheron's mangy flaming hide!” The words were spit in irritation. She turned onto her stomach and pressed her face to the floor. The position hurt her nose as well as her neck, but it gave her something to think about besides the activities of the evening.

“ _I'm going to surprise you often, cat.”_

“ _Promises, promises... are you going to talk or massage?” Her eyelids flutter as he massages a particularly good spot where the neck joins the shoulder._

“ _They're not empty promises, Vera. You can see that I take care of the female. I want you to feel good, I want you to remember me, and I want those memories to be good ones.”_

She had been cynical. She was pretty, in her own dark, tomboyish way, and had heard lines before. Well, Tyr had been partially right. He'd taken good care of her. She'd felt good—came multiple times, in fact, rather vocally. And she would remember him—just not for the reason he'd hoped.

He wasn't remarkable for what he did to her—others, though less skilled, had been comparable, including the Ash gladium from a week ago. This time was remarkable more for the absence of something.

He wasn't her type, just convenient. Seemed taken with her. Already admitted a “weakness” for females. Weak-willed hypocrite, he was, at least in some matters. But after a dry spell during her time with the... “apple merchants”... and, well, it couldn't hurt to have one person in Rumbling Iron liking her from the start, in whatever way...

She was a good actress, but faking purring still came with difficulty. Then he surrendered, and that heady rush of power came, the “I have him eating off my palm”, the “I have what it takes”. She knew part of her pleasure that night had come from that knowledge.

Still, she had known that about herself for a long time.

“ _Vera.” Her name is more of a groan, and she feels that familiar tingling in her spine she's starting to recognize as the thrill of power. That edge to his voice, the frenzy to his actions, the desperation.... He is a harsh lover, fast and brutal, and it's over quickly. She has to take care of herself that night...but it isn't hard, because knowing she can reduce the usually stoic, levelheaded Legionnaire Rajjen Strongshadow to... that... is a stimulant like no other—well, one other._

That “other” is a memory, one she knows she couldn't erase if she tried.

_Vera is uncomfortably hot, the sand itchy on her fur. The young female turns to lie on her stomach, reaching back with one paw to try to brush the sand off her back. Her dark fur seems to soak up the sun's rays, and for one brief, crazy moment she thinks being shaved wouldn't be so bad._

_Beside her on the shore of Breachwater Lake, Koreth lazily opens one eye. “Just lay back and relax. We've earned it.”_

“ _I know we have. I just can't.”_

_She turns again, wrinkling her muzzle, and scratches an itch. A short ways away, the rest of the warband, all of them barely a year out of the fahrar, lies sprawled on the beach, mostly sunbathing or grilling the fish they'd caught._

“ _Still got too much adrenaline in you?” He smiles at her._

_She opens her mouth, then closes it again. “No, it's not adrenaline.” She knows the main reason she's been so restless the past few days was never the rush of adrenaline from the mission—though that certainly contributed--but her heat._

“ _Ah.” He closes his eye again, and seems to relax again, but she catches the words as they slip out of his muzzle: “Finally she admits it.”_

“ _You... can tell?” Of course he could. She knows this._

“ _I've got a nose.” He says this without opening his eyes._

_But it's Koreth. Her infiltration partner. Her best friend. Somehow knowing he knows feels... strange. It feels like a fluttering in her stomach, or perhaps a bit lower._

“ _Just watch out for the rush once you decide to actually do something about it. I'm sure Rajjen will do his damn best to be first in line.”_

“ _Shut up!” Despite the hot temperature, she's annoyed enough to expend the energy to sit up and hit him._

_He grins, and she's suddenly aware of how good he looks, sharp teeth glinting in the sun, aware of the silky fur and muscular shoulder underneath her paw, aware that if he opened his eyes, she'd see the glint of green that seemed to bore right through her more often than not._

_Damn hormones! And she can be rash. She knows this. Still, at that moment, she wants nothing more than....  
“Koreth?”_

“ _Hrm?”_

“ _Come down to the water with me, will you? It'll be cooler in the lake.”_

“ _Fair point, though I'm not the half-fish in water you are.” The light gray Charr hauls himself up, brushing most of the sand off, and follows her._

_She is shaking slightly with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, the excitement slowly taking over. Her dive into the lakewater is graceful, Koreth's rather less so. Her swimming lessons had been less effective than his dagger lessons, though he was still far better than the rest of the warband._

_He's treading water not far from her, and she cuts through the water towards him.  
“It is cooler. Admittedly.” He dunks his head underneath the surface of the lake. Water drips off his horns, his short-cropped mane staying relatively orderly._

_Vera runs one paw through his mane, attempting to mess it up. “Greymane.” The name slips affectionately from her lips, and the next thing she's conscious of is herself nuzzling up against him, molding herself to the contours of him, both of them naked from their sunbathing moments earlier._

“ _Vera.” He swallows, looking down at her as she hesitantly licks the corner of his mouth. “Vera. You should calm down.”_

_She shakes her head. “No, I don't need to calm down. I happen to need something taken care of, and I think you can help me.” Blinking up at him, she momentarily wonders where that came from. She's not usually like this._

“ _Vera.” She can tell by the tone of his voice that he's conflicted about something as he turns to swim a bit closer to the shore. She distances herself somewhat from him, but only reluctantly._

_He braces himself against the bank, turning to face her and holding out one forepaw to ward her off. “Vera, Vera, think about it. You sure? You'll most likely have cubs if we—if you do it with anyone now.”_

“ _I don't care! Please, Koreth.” She's begging. That's not right. He should be here, fucking her already—no, she knows that's just the hormones talking. Vera shakes her head and tries to clear it. She did it before—why is it so hard now to push those damn thoughts away? Well, he's here, for one...  
She doesn't like the conclusion that's headed towards, so she takes a deep breath._

“ _I decided it's time, I want it, and I want it with you.”_

_He arches one eyebrow, and she can see the briefest moment of surprise—and something else—flash across his face before he carefully schools his features. “You sure?”_

“ _Idiot. Don't act like you're no catch. You know you are.”  
He snorts, but smiles. “Hell yeah.”_

_His demeanor changes as he looks down at her, and she sees something she's only caught glimpses of through the years. Lust—or is it love? She's not sure, and as his tongue swipes over the little hollow behind and below her ears, she can't be bothered to differentiate._

_This thing is on in earnest for now, and a moment of misgiving strikes her, but she brushes it off, reminding herself of her own mantra: “Carry out any decision you make—maybe you'll learn not to make rash ones then.” So far it hadn't worked yet, but she was pretty sure it would._

_Besides, she trusts Koreth—with her life and with anything she might be able to entrust him with._

_His paw is wandering down her ribcage to her hip, lower, and she can't suppress a moan._

“ _You're really wet.” He leans down, nipping at her ear as he whispers into it. “Want me that badly, huh?”_

_She would prefer to not respond to that question, and she's spared trying to think of what to say as he gently puts pressure on her back and instinct kicks in. In retrospect, maybe the question was rhetorical anyways._

“ _Tight, too.” The words are grunted as he strokes a paw down her back, his claws slightly extended, and she shivers, overwhelmed with sensation. It doesn't take much before she's yowling and feeling mostly out of her mind and his claws are leaving a trail of blood._

_The encounter is short, but repeated a few minutes later, and then a little longer after that._

_Simultaneously exhausted and giddy, she settles herself down on the sand next to him, the restlessness gone. One last thing out of the ordinary she does, though, is reach out a claw, just barely grazing him with the tip. He doesn't seem to react, lying on the sand, as tired as she is.  
Koreth. Mission partner, best friend, lover._

The absence of that was what bothered her. Not once during the entire time with Tyr had she thought of Koreth. Unlike all the times with Rajjen. Unlike the night a week ago, with that one gladium who asked if she'd “contributed to her Legion” yet—and she'd lied, because her cubs were none of his fucking business. Unlike every time she'd ever been with anyone besides Koreth.  
She hadn't been thinking of the guy inside her. Her mind was just—blank.

And it had been a blessing, because thinking of Koreth now was torture. Because if she hadn't accepted this assignment, they could have been partners again, maybe. She wouldn't analyze why she wanted that, why she preferred not thinking about him anymore. She didn't get involved in that feelings and partnership shit. It distracted and tore apart warbands, fucked missions up beyond repair. He wasn't a part of her life now, and most likely wouldn't be for a long time.

How ironic it was that after everything she'd done, after everything she could have lost sleep over, even after all the time she'd spent apart from Koreth over the past year and a half, now was when the insomnia struck, because of some petty little thing like this.

She wondered if the desire to “blank out” and forget was what drove some to addiction.

“I do not care about--” She frowned. She knew she did care, and she hated hypocrites. With a frustrated growl, she turned onto her back again. “Fine.” Her claws extended, she scraped ran her paw down the wall. A loud screech echoed, prompting a chorus of “Cut it out!” and “By Adelburn's flaming curse, we're trying to sleep here!” They made her grin.

Fine. So maybe she liked Koreth. So maybe she wished they were working together again—that he was in her life again. So what? It's not like she was going to do anything about it. She wasn't sentimental.

...Okay, maybe she could ask if he could be her “handler”. The thought made her smirk. Definitely a reversal of roles. He would find it amusingly ironic, too.

Something inside her ached at the thought, and she growled. Fine, she wanted to ask. But it wouldn't be wise. Having him there, having admitted to herself that she... liked him? As more than just a mission partner?

Inside her blanket, Vera curled together and grimaced. No. She knew she wasn't that good of an actress, to pretend that nothing was different. That's why he was always the one to infiltrate. He'd catch on. And if just this made her lose sleep, what would happen if she knew he was just out reach, unable to make contact often so as not to arouse suspicion?

A sigh escaped her. She'd admitted it to herself, now she'd try to forget it and get on with integrating into her soon-to-be new warband. Tyr would be helpful there. He made her forget. He was a little like Koreth in that way—calm, seductive, soothing.

The thought made her stop short. Was he too much like Koreth? Was that what disturbed her? That he was like, but not? That he made her forget?

Something inside her clicked, and she refused to let herself run from it. “I don't want to forget.” Whispering it made her curl up further, as if protecting herself. “I don't want to forget.”  
And that was when she knew she wouldn't sleep with Tyr again.

She was mulling over how to bring that about elegantly when sleep slipped over her.

***

Tyr made it easy on her. Or rather, both she and he made it easy on her.  
It was a knee-jerk reaction. He licked her— _so like Koreth_  flashed across her mind, and she couldn't let it go. “You're my mate now” tipped her over the edge.

“Your mate?” A snort escaped her. “So because I bent over for you once, I'm your mate now? Does that make me Rajjen's mate, or Biafra's as well? I've slept with them, too. Is a female you pick up at the Serrated Blade and never see again your mate as well?” The smirk on her face was part amusement, part condescension, part pure cruelty. “Really, for someone who claims to sleep around a lot, you sure do get …Needy? Attached? ...very quickly.”

That got him riled up. It was so easy from there. He spouted some nonsense she didn't really pay attention to, although she did feel a little bad—and maybe a little worried for her future in the warband's good graces—that she'd taken it too far. Been too harsh. Although, really, Tyr needed to grow himself a pair if that hurt him.

An offer to explain, telling him that she didn't want to be treated differently just because they slept together once, was brushed off. His “Maybe I'd hoped something more could come out of it—but now I see not,” floored her, though. She lost all interest in anything to do with him after that. She didn't do “more”, and she hated the idea.

Maybe Biafra—that Ash gladium whose cubs she didn't want—would be more on her wavelength with regards to “doing it” after all.

Faking liking Tyr's company in the meantime—and tormenting him in the process—would be fun, though.

And there was that other new recruit, Tahun, she would maybe have more fun with. She hid her smirk as Tahun made a remark to that very effect, and she excused herself. One thing at a time...

She'd do fine without Koreth. Though even as that flashed across her mind, she doubted it.


End file.
